Publications

Dr. Kirst’s publications began in 1969 and featured K-12 education politics and policy until 1998. As a policy generalist, Dr. Kirst has written on such topics as K-12 school finance, intergovernmental relations, children’s policy, and K-12 governance. He continues to publish in these domains.

Since 1997, Dr. Kirst has focused more on the disconnections between K-12 and postsecondary education that cause much of the low college completion rates in the United States. A theme of this research is that only K-12 and postsecondary education working together can improve college readiness and college completion.

His publications are broken into five types and sections.

College Readiness : publications dealing with the ability of students who are actually ready to begin college, taking into account all mitigating factors such as financial need, time management, etc.

College Success : publications that study the different factors that enable anyone to graduate.

Student Risk Factors : the graduation rate of first generation, minority and lower income students is appallingly low. These publications take a look into the factors that prevent success, and what can be done to increase the successful graduation percentage of disadvantaged students.

College Support : how institutions and government policy can improve preparation and success through such policies as curriculum alignment, counseling , financial aid, increased accountability, and better data.

K-12 Politics and Policy : this work encompasses who controls our schools from the period 1964 – 2007, and numerous policy issues.

Dr. Kirst’s latest work focused on college preparation and college success at broad access postsecondary institutions that are open enrollment, or accept all qualified applicants.

A prolific writer, Dr. Kirst has authored ten books, including The Political Dynamics of American Education(2005). As a policy generalist, Professor Kirst has published articles on school finance politics, curriculum politics, intergovernmental relations, as well as education reform policies.

He is a member of the management and research staff of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, a federally funded center. His recent book, From High School to College (2004), concerns improving student preparation for success in postsecondary education.

While Kirst’s early work focused primarily on k-12 policy and politics, much of his recent work has focused on college preparation and college success at broad access postsecondary institutions that are open enrollment, or accept all qualified applicants. The disconnections between k-12 and postsecondary education cause much of the low college completion rates. Kirst’s research demonstrates that only k-12 and postsecondary education working together to improve preparation nd college readiness will increase college completion.